


Found Out

by orphan_account



Series: Franklin [3]
Category: Paramore
Genre: Eavesdropping, M/M, Secret Relationship, Sneaking Around, tw slurs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-04
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-12 21:40:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7950139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The truth isn't easy to swallow.</p><p>(Hayley sees something unexpected.  She doesn't know if it's necessarily a bad thing.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Found Out

**Author's Note:**

> and now, one million years later, another part to franklinverse. it isn't the happiest, but i tried to make it realistic. being gay in the bible belt in the mid 2000s was a rough time. i myself am not religious, but i've based these conversations with those i've had with either current or former christians of various sexual orientations. i like to think that around this time, hayley started realizing that the world was bigger than her small town christian bubble, as she's been quoted around 2007/2008 saying things that were more progressive than before. that's my girl. 
> 
> this is set in october 2006. hayley is seventeen, taylor and zac are sixteen, josh is eighteen. 
> 
> the situations depicted in this work of fiction are just that - entirely fictional. all individuals portrayed in this work are fictional versions and i do not claim ownership of them, as they belong to themselves. if you are anyone featured in this, please make friends with the back button, don't google yourself, and have a lovely evening with your significant other (if you have one nowadays - looking at you, t).
> 
> enjoy.

“You got everything, Hayley baby?”

Hayley looks up briefly from her search through her bag to smile at Josh. He’s so fucking cute, especially with how he’s grinning, eyes visible through his bangs. She looks down and rifles through. Keys? Check. Cell phone? Check. Little notebook in case inspiration strikes? Check. Wallet? Wallet. Wallet...

“I forgot my wallet downstairs,” she says, pursing her lip. “It’ll only take a second.”

“No worries, I’ll just wait in the truck,” Josh says. He kisses her on the cheek for good measure. “Don’t get swallowed up down there.”

“I’m fine practicing, dingus, I’ll be fine getting my stuff,” she says, already headed down the stairs.

She’s quiet as she goes down the stairs. The guys are always fussing at her about the way she clomps around. She’s always done it because she’s small, a way for people to notice when she’s around. For some reason though, this time around, she feels like being quiet. She looks by the drumset first and voila, there’s her dirty, shitty little wallet. She really needs to get it replaced. She’s about to go back upstairs when the little commotion that she heard at first gets louder. Because she’s the nosiest person to ever live, she hides behind a wall and peeks out. Taylor and Zac are wrestling on the floor. That’s something they haven’t done since they were kids, so it seems a little odd, but then again, they’re odd. Zac seems to have the upper hand for once, with Taylor pinned down, both his hands above his head. 

“Stop, stop,” Taylor says, only half laughing. “Please -”

“Admit defeat!” Zac says cheerfully, with an undercurrent of...something. 

“You’re hurting me, I’m being serious,” Taylor says.

Zac lets up immediately, helping Taylor up by his good hand. He takes Taylor’s bad hand and examines it as it it’s made of glass. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know I was being that rough.”

“I cry wolf all the time,” Taylor says, threading his fingers with Zac’s. “You wouldn’t have known. Happy it wasn’t yours, anyway. With the band and all.”

“The second you graduate you’re in this band,” Zac says. “I’ll fight people. I don’t care.”

Hayley wants so badly to object, to say that she wants Taylor in the band too, but she’s not supposed to be here. There’s something really weird about their interaction that’s keeping her glued to her spot.

“Do you still think we’d be able to do this?” Taylor says with a vague gesture in between them.

Zac smiles. “It would be kind of hypocritical of them to say no, don’t you think?”

“I guess,” Taylor says, shying away for some reason. What is he even talking about that they would do? Wrestle? “Would you still want to?”

“Of course,” Zac says as he...circles his hands around Taylor’s back? What? No. “C’mere.”

“Fine,” Taylor says, but it’s fake exasperated. He loops his arms around Zac’s shoulders and stars to move his hands up toward the nape of his neck. “I like that you’re growing your hair out.”

“Oh yeah, why’s that?” 

“I can get my hands in it,” Taylor says, tangling his hands down to the roots. 

Zac’s eyes slip shut as he bites his lip. “Ah yeah. I like that.”

Taylor closes the difference between them and kisses him.

They’re kissing. They’re honest to goodness kissing and Hayley doesn’t know what to do. She puts her hand over her mouth to stop from making a noise. What is going on? She closes her eyes and opens them again, as if the image in front of her would disappear. However, it’s clear that it’s not going to. Hayley notices that Zac’s hands are spread across Taylor’s back. It’s only when Taylor suddenly pulls back that Hayley realizes what she’s doing and hides fully behind the wall. She screws her eyes shut, trying to will the image of them doing what they were just doing out of her head. It’s not working. 

“What’s up?” Zac says, sounding mildly concerned. 

“Are we alone?” Taylor says. His breathing is uneven, as if scared.

Zac laughs softly. “Hayley and Josh will be gone for hours. We’re alone.”

There’s a pause for a few seconds, probably Taylor thinking it over. “I just felt like we were being watched.”

“We’re not,” Zac says. “I promise. Now, back to more fun stuff...”

When Hayley chances a look back, they’re kissing again, but it’s more intense this time, like a movie. They sigh into each other’s mouths and - oh God, they’re kissing with tongues, and Zac sighs when it looks like Taylor pulls his hair... She feels like she’s going to be sick, but she can’t look away. There’s this twinge of something else in her gut. She doesn’t know what it is, but her clothes suddenly feel itchy, her heart beating faster. She hides behind the wall again, back against the wood, putting her fists over her face. This can’t be happening.

“Wait, actually, can we go upstairs?” Taylor says. Hayley wants to peek out again, to see what his face looks like, but she doesn’t want to get caught. “At least we can lock the door.”

“Now was that so hard?” Zac says, but it’s tender. Hayley doesn’t think she’s ever heard him use that kind of voice in his life. “Let’s go.”

Hayley hears their footsteps coming closer and scoots away from the edge of the wall so she’s more out of sight. She hears their loud footsteps clunk up the stairs and the basement door opening and closing. With her eyes screwed shut (they’re not even there anymore, why is she doing that), she counts for a full ninety seconds before she runs up the stairs and out the side door, clenching her wallet in her hand. Her heart is racing a million miles a minute and she’s out of breath. What the fuck is happening?

“What took you so long?” Josh says as she leaps into the truck and slams the door closed.

“My wallet was, like, in the crevices of the couch,” Hayley says, controlling her breathing. If there’s anything she’s good at, it’s lying. “I have no idea how.”

“You’re a mess,” Josh says, but kisses her to reassure her that he’s kidding. “Let’s go.”

 _Everything’s a mess_ , she thinks, stomach squirming as he puts the truck into drive and pulls out of the driveway. She needs to say something, anything, but this isn’t something she can put out there easily. Back when they were in school, they used to make fun of the gay kids who would show up to the homeschool meets. The fags with their girly figures and the dykes with their short hair. But there’s something about those words that’s been leaving a sour taste in her mouth lately. They don’t seem right. They’re just people, right? Just like Taylor and Zac are just people.

“What would you say if you saw two guys kissing?” Hayley says.

Josh makes a face like he just tasted something nasty. “That came out of nowhere.”

“Well, what would you say?” she says. “Like, hypothetically.” _Say like, your brother and his best friend._

“Uh, depends on who it is, I guess?” he says. “Like if it’s just some random person, sure, it would be gross, but it’s not my place to call them out on that. I mean, it’s not right, but they have to find out on their own.”

“What if it was someone you knew?” Hayley says. “Like... I don’t know, like James or something.”

“My cousin James? You think he’s a homo?” Josh says. 

“I’m just naming a random person, Josh,” Hayley says. “I don’t think James is gay.”

“I was gonna say,” Josh says, looking visibly relieved. “Well, I’d probably tell his parents. They gotta know. And like, maybe the pastor, though his parents would probably tell the pastor anyway. And Zac, of course, I’d probably tell him first.”

Hayley can’t help but suck in her breath just the tiniest bit. Of course he would tell Zac first. “That sounds about right. Makes sense.”

“So yeah,” Josh says. “What brought this up? Do you know something?”

It’s on the tip of her tongue, really, it is. She should just tell Josh everything. About them wrestling, how tender they were with each other (like they were... like they were boyfriends or something) and them _kissing_ for goodness sake. Even though she knows this is something some people do, some tiny part of her can’t believe they were just flaunting it like that, what they were doing, like they didn’t care at all. But it’s that creeping sense of a different perspective that’s holding her back. She doesn’t know what it is, but it’s there. She hates herself for it. Hate the sin, love the sinner, maybe? No, they’re tied to it. But she loves them both, they’re like her brothers, it’s just - agh. It makes her so dizzy and confused.

“I saw two guys at the mall kissing,” she says instead. “I think they’re from the high school. I just wondered if maybe we knew anyone who was like that.”

“I hope not,” Josh says, laughing and shoving her lightly. “I don’t know how I’d even handle that.”

“Me neither,” she says with an uneasy laugh. There are a lot of things she wishes she didn’t know.

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to follow me on tumblr at [toallofourfavoriteparts](http://toallofourfavoriteparts.tumblr.com). thanks for reading. <3


End file.
